UC Irvine senior Luke Nelson and UC Davis junior Chima Moneke have been named to the All-District 9 Second Team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches for the 2016-17 season.

Nelson, the 2016-17 Big West Player of the Year, averaged a team-leading 16.9 points in 18 games. The Anteaters went 14-4 with Nelson in the lineup after he had missed another 18 games with a hamstring injury. The 6-3 guard scored in double figures 16 times, including six 20-point games. Nelson tied his season high of 29 points on two occasions – at Hawai‘i on Feb. 11 and against UC Davis on Mar. 4. The latter performance helped the Anteaters win the Big West outright regular season title, the program's third – outright or shared – in the last four years.

He also earned a spot on the Big West All-Tournament Team for the third time in his career after averaging 15.7 points over three games as the Anteaters reached the championship game. Nelson scored 17 points in an NIT first round game at Illinois State, as he culminated his career with the eighth-most three-pointers made (258) in Big West history. The Worthing, England native scored 1,531 points to rank fourth all-time at UCI, helped his squad reach a postseason tournament in all four years with the program.

Moneke, a first team All-Big West pick, led the conference with 14 double-doubles and 17 games of double-digit rebounds. He was the Big West's leading rebounder at 9.5 per game and ranked No. 6 in scoring (14.6 ppg). He earned 2016-17 Big West Newcomer of the Year recognition as a central piece in helping UC Davis win the conference tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

The 6-6 forward scored 20 points or more in nine games, including 20 on 8-of-13 shooting in the NCAA Tournament First Round against Kansas. He had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Aggies past North Carolina Central in an NCAA First Four game, the program's first Division I NCAA postseason win. Hailing from Canberra, Australia, Moneke collected a career-high 18 rebounds in a win over Cal Poly in the first round of the Big West Tournament, and he scored a career-best 26 points at Hawai‘i on Jan. 21.
NABC All-District 9First Team
Nigel Williams-Goss, Gonzaga
Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga
Jock Landale, Saint Mary's
Erik Mika, BYU
Jared Brownridge, Santa Clara